FROM THE PASTOR S DESK

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2 FROM THE PASTOR S DESK DEAR MEMBERS & FRIENDS, Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Summer is in full swing with the Memorial Day weekend right around the corner. The boys of summer, namely the Minnesota Twins, are not winning very much. In fact, I think they have the worst record in baseball. After almost making the playoffs last summer, the playoffs this summer look to be out of the question. The pitching has not been good. The hitting has not been good. The defense is not that good either. It could be a long summer for Twins fans like me. It is hard to imagine that the Twins are not likely to make the playoffs when the basketball playoffs are not even over yet. One also has to wonder if Paul Molitor will make to the end of the season as manager of the Twins. Even though the Twins beat the Kansas City Royals yesterday, as of this morning, the Twins do have the worst record in all of baseball. On the bright side, they are only a half game behind the Atlanta Braves for worst record. June is the month when we have our Dakota/Montana District Convention. The convention is held every other year on the even numbered years. In the odd numbered years there is a Wisconsin Synod Convention. Our district convention is always held at GPLHS. Because GPLHS has a dormitory and a large auditorium, it makes for a good place to host the convention and at a reasonable cost. Because the district convention is always at GPLHS, which is in the Eastern Conference, the annual Spring Pastors Conference is held in the Western Conference or the Rocky Mountain Conference. This year s Spring Pastors Conference was held in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. Next year s Spring Pastors Conference will be in Mandan, North Dakota. On account of this arrangement, congregations in the Eastern Conference, like Ascension, do not ever host any district wide conventions. At the district convention we will usually have a presenter or some theological papers delivered. That is our study time, so to speak. We will also have presentations by various synod and district officials. There will also be elections for district and conference officers. There are four district officers: district president, vice president, second vice president and district secretary. Two of those four will be up for election at this summer s convention. Our current district president is Pastor Doug Free from Rapid City and the current district secretary is Pastor Ryan Wolf from Mandan. Each of the three conferences will caucus to elect their conference chairman, conference secretary and circuit pastors. Our current conference chairman is Pastor Mike Enderle from Clear Lake, SD. Our Eastern Conference secretary is Pastor Nathan Zastrow from Milbank. The two circuit pastors in the Eastern Conference are Pastor Bruce Mueller from Gary (southern circuit) and myself (northern circuit). I was circuit pastor for a few years before I became District Mission Board chairman. When I became chairman of the Mission Board I had to give up circuit pastor. After being termed out of the Mission Board, I became circuit pastor again. However, I have decided not to stand for re-election as circuit pastor. My current term as circuit pastor will end when we elect a new circuit pastor at this summer s district convention. I wish the new circuit pastor, whomever that may be, the Lord s blessings as he serves the congregations and pastors of the Northern Circuit! In Christ s service, Pastor Lloyd Schlomer

3 SUMMER BIBLE SCHOOL We began on Sunday, May 22 nd, after church during the Bible Class hour. We will continue monthly throughout the summer. Children ages 2 and up are encouraged to attend. Our theme is Gone Fishing. There will be a lesson for all ages, crafts, music, and outdoor play as weather permits. We are also planning a potluck after each session. Everyone is welcome for the potluck, whether involved in the Summer Bible School or not. We will also need some volunteers to help with the various activities. Our next dates for Summer Sunday VBS are June 26 th and July 10 th. Let Darlene know if you are able to help! JESUS CARES MINISTRY A Jesus Cares Ministry serves people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. We are hoping to get one started sometime this fall. There is a lot of planning and legwork to do before we can start. We will also need several volunteers to help with this ministry. Our next planning meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 18 th, at 9:30 in the morning. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us at any time. OPEN FORUM We have scheduled an open forum for Sunday, June 5 th, during the Bible Study hour. We will discuss the plans for our parking lot. We do have the preliminary plans from the engineers for our review. We will also discuss our outdoor landscaping. The outdoor landscaping committee is meeting again on Thursday, June 23 rd, at 6:30. Everyone is welcome to attend that committee meeting. Another item for the open forum is the old SS building. Do we want to get rid of it or do we want to keep it? You re welcome to give your input at the open forum. After the open forum there will be a brief voters meeting. FOOD PANTRY The Moorhead food pantry on Main Avenue in Moorhead is in need of volunteers. This is especially true during the summer as they rely on college students during the school year. The college students are gone for the summer. Ascension has agreed to supply volunteers on the fourth Wednesday of the summer months of June, July and August. The schedule is: June 22, 6:00 to 7:45; July 27, 6:30 to 7:45; August 24, 6:30 to 7:45. We start earlier on the June 22 date so they can show us what we need to do. We need about 8 to 10 volunteers and can have up to 15. Kids can help, but if they are not middle school or older they need to have a parent or guardian with them. If you have any questions, talk to Darlene Schlomer.

4 BUILDING FINANCE The new addition to our church has been completely paid off. Thank you for your generosity! The last payment was taken from the BHM fund, which is money we received from the synod for my service as District Mission Board chairman money we could spend any way we wanted. The new addition was paid off less than one year after we dedicated the new addition. This is a tremendous tribute to our members who love their church. We also seem to be a congregation that is debt adverse. We do not like to be in debt. That s actually good! Our next projects are: parking lot, SS building (what to do with it), and outdoor landscaping. Any money given to the building fund now goes to parking lot. Our problem is our regular offerings are well short of our monthly expenses. This reminds all of us to examine our regular giving and to adjust according to our income. May God continue to bless our efforts! Bible Classes: June Sunday Morning: We going through a high-level study of Luther's Small Catechism. May 29 - Introduction to the Law & 1st Commandment June 5 - Open Forum followed by Voter's Meeting June 12-2nd & 3rd Commandments June 19-4th & 5th Commandments June 26-6th & 7th Commandments Friday Morning: We will continue our study on Hebrews; actually, we are stepping through the epistles of the New Testament. May 27 - Hebrews 12:7-17 June 3 - Hebrews 12:18-29 June 10 - Hebrews 13:1-8 June 17 - Hebrews 13:9-16 Jun 24 - Hebrews 13:17-25 Come join us for any or all of these sessions.

5 Have you ever wondered what it was like in the times of Jesus? We have to be careful not to add to scripture nor distract from the saving message of God's Word. But take for instance the story of the feeding of the 5,000. Do you think there were billboards stating "free food" with an arrow? Probably not! Do you think there were people walking around with sandwich board signs with sayings such as, "Come here the Messiah"? Probably not! So what drew these 5,000 men plus women and children out of the towns, away from what they were doing? We are told in the gospels that people simply followed him because of his message and the miracles he performed. We still have the same message, it is found in his book called the BIBLE. If we think that miracles are not happening around us, have we not just experienced Spring where GOD causes trees to leaf out and plants to grow, not to mention the warming weather or the migrating birds. To say that God does not do miracles today we sure are not being very observant. Or are we just not willing to give GOD the credit due to Him? So why do we think we need to cloud God's Word and His Miraculous Acts with our thoughts of how to subtlety spread his message through worldly events? Should we not simply focus on what Jesus did and make sure that we are not adding what we are doing? Remember God says, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isaiah 55:11. Our focus needs to be boldly sharing God's TRUE message and not trying to sneak it in. Are we ready? Are we doing it? What needs to be done to strengthen this focus at Ascension and in our lives. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Schulz Adult Nurture Elder Time of Grace Blog Posted April 2015 By Diana Kerr 8 unawkward ways to incorporate faith in your conversations You go to church most Sundays, spend time in the Word, and love the Lord. You have a good relationship with him and feel pretty strong in your faith. You ve even got a Jesus bumper sticker. (Okay, maybe not.) But when it comes to talking about your faith, you sweat. You retreat. You avoid. You know you should mention Jesus to your neighbor and your coworker and the girl who cuts your hair, and you want to, but it s so hard and scary. You know why I think this is so hard for us? 1. We think it s all about us. We make it about our abilities and words and forget that the Holy Spirit is within us and is right there in the room. 2. We think we need to go from 0 to 60 in one conversation. As in, asking a coworker to go to church with us this weekend when we ve never even mentioned before that we re Christian. It doesn t have to be that hard. I m not an expert on witnessing, but I ve found that just salting my conversations goes a long way. What do I mean by that? Name-drop Jesus, God, and church casually in your conversations and see what happens. Sometimes it sparks a great conversation right then and there, sometimes it sparks a future

6 conversation because that person has a question for you, and sometimes it sparks nothing noticeable but you know that from then on, that person is watching you to see what a Christian is like. (What a great challenge!) Here are 8 of my favorite ways to incorporate faith into everyday conversation without awkwardly blurting out at a dinner party, So, do you believe in God? 1. Ask people about their weekend plans. They ll tell you and then ask you what you re doing. You can casually reply and include church in your list: working on your landscaping, hoping to catch up on TV episodes you DVRed, and going to church on Sunday. 2. Say that you re blessed or use the word blessing whenever it makes sense. Example: We are so blessed to have our parents nearby to help with the kids. Or, John s new job has really been a blessing. 3. If you work for a Christian organization, include that when you say what you do. Instead of, I m an administrative assistant for a nonprofit, say, I m an administrative assistant for a Christian nonprofit. 4. If you or your kids attended/currently attend Christian schools and something about schools comes up in conversation, do the same thing. Instead of answering, Oh, I went to a small private college, try, I went to a small Christian college. 5. Bring your faith into what you say on social media. You could randomly stick a Post-it note with a Bible passage on your unbelieving coworker s computer screen. Or you could opt for a little less aggressive option to get Bible passages in front of people Facebook. 6. Don t be shy about calling something a God thing. When your friend says, I can t believe your boss gave you that bonus the day after you got that huge medical bill! respond with, I know! It was a total God thing. 7. Preface a statement with, I don t know what you believe, but... or I don t know if you re a Christian, but... I ve done this before when I m about to explain how God is leading me or speaking to me or why something s important to me. It s an awesome strategy if you want to know more about someone s beliefs without straight up asking them. For example, I don t know if you re a Christian, but I really believe that God is behind this whole adoption process we ve been through. 8. Give God credit. When someone congratulates you on something like overcoming an illness, you can say, Thanks! It s just amazing how God made our bodies to be able to heal. Give these ideas a try and see where they lead. Sometimes you may need to be a little bolder, but this list is a great place to start! And you ll be surprised how effective it is to mention faith and let the other person guide where the conversation goes from there. Let s add to the list! Share your tips, strategies, and encouragement in the comments section below for the sake of everyone else reading this post. And may you go and make disciples of all nations, unawkwardly, with confidence, and with trust that God s got your back.

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8 If there is any information that you would like included in the monthly newsletter, please either drop a note in Trisha Dominguez s mailbox or send an to: newsletter@ascensionmoorhead.org ***All information for the July newsletter is due by June 20 th ***